I used to work in the natural foods industry. We did extensive taste testing & Numi makes an exceptional product. They put tremendous energy into finding the best available ingredients & it shows. Just open up a bag of theirs & bags of same variety tea by other companies. The color & aroma is just saturated - most other tea company products look pale. It is a little more expensive. Really good ingredients often are. (No, don't work for them, don't know them, have no interest in them except for I believe in their tea!)

I have to completly agree with meatn3 on Numi teas. They ARE expensive, but their product is very good, for bagged tea. If you have a Trader Joes close to you, you may want to try the Trader Joe's brand of specialty teas. It's not the best of the best, but the price is lower than Numi. I did like the mango black tea I bought from them.

To me, I think spending a bit more $$$ on a good tea (or coffee, to boot) is better in the long run. I know i'm going to be happy with the end result.

Start your own tea taste-tests, buy a few boxes that look interesting to you, and see for yourself what you like. Of course (for me, at least) this lead to an utter addiction to loose-teas, and how much better they are than the bags. Trying new types of tea is quite enjoyable for me- and yes i've had a few stinkers over the years.

i find i like Rishi's teas....lots of variety, extremely high quality and fairly easy to find (whole foods, wegmans, online site). i tend to buy loose leaf tea or the compressed discs so i'm not 100% certain of what they offer in bagged teas...but it's definitely worth checking.www.rishi-tea.com

Thanks for the advice!!!I had a feeling there may not be much out there (yet) at Numi's quality level. I'll definitely give Rishi's a try as well as being more adventurous with TJ's bagged teas. I might also go back to drinking more loose teas which I used to when living in Europe.

I just tried the TJ's organic Mint Medley last night and it was pretty good: smooth and well balanced, not overly medicinal as mint tea can sometimes be. Still, I'm mostly a loose tea person myself: you can control the strength and the freshness much more easily with loose tea.

If you have an Asian market or a Chinatown near where you live, you might try and seek out Ten Ren tea. They are relatively inexpensive and very good as far as bagged tea goes. They also do mailorder if you want to go that route.

I also like Revolution bagged teas but they're definitely on the pricier side.

i agree with honeychan- tj's has some good options. they also have terrific prices on guayaki if you're a maté fan.

rishi is a great product, but from my experience it's in the same price range as numi...as is zhena's gypsy tea, another excellent choice.

if you have a 'cost plus world market' near you, it might be worth a look. they don't carry numi, but some of their stores have a great selection of 'republic of tea' products. [still pricey, i know, but good tea.] plus, they're a terrific source for random international food items, wines, tableware, & kitchen accessories.

and finally, if you like green tea, costco's kirkland signature japanese green tea bags are shockingly good, and a box of 100 bags is around $13. they're produced by ito-en, which explains the high quality, and it's a blend of sencha leaves & matcha powder in nylon mesh pyramid bags. i'm completely hooked...i start my day with a cup every morning.

OMG, thank you so much for letting us know about Costo's green tea! I just saw it the other day while shopping, but didn't bother picking up the box. (I didn't expect it to be something by a higher-end tea company...I'm surprised it's by Ito-En! I like their teas quite well) Thanks for the heads-up!!